5.06 timeless

Two unrecognisable, heavily clothed humans walk on the surface of a glacial planet until one says, "We’re here!" The camera zooms out to reveal Voyager, imprisoned beneath the ice. The two people are Chakotay and Harry Kim, both 20 years older than the last time we saw them, and with gray hair (although Harry’s boyish voice sounds exactly the same). Why are they here? 20 years ago, Voyager installed a quantum slipstream drive to get home immediately, and, with Kim and Chakotay riding point in the Delta Flyer, attempted their first flight, only to break out of the slipsteam and crash when Kim sent the wrong course corrections. For 20 years, the two of them have searched for Voyager, with a plan for sending a temporal message through time to one of Seven’s cranial implants and this time sending the proper course corrections. The hoped-for result? Save the crew of Voyager and change history. With the help of the doctor and Chakotay’s present day girlfriend, and pursued by a Federation ship captained by Geordi LaForge, Kim sends the message – but once again the coordinates are wrong, and nothing changes. At the end of his rope, having lived with the guilt of killing Voyager’s crew not once but now twice, Kim gives up until the doctor suggests that instead of correcting the variance, perhaps he could just shut down the slipstream drive and save the crew that way (without getting them home). Kim sends the coordinates just before the Delta Flyer explodes.

Back on Voyager in the past, the Delta Flyer is still riding point, and Kim is supposed to be sending a course correction. But telemetry has been cut off. Still, a message comes in through Seven’s cranial implant – she implements the correction – and the ship safely breaks out of the slipstream. Who did it? Even Kim doesn’t know. But when a log entry is found encoded within the course correction, everyone knows it was Harry Kim from the future. A gray-haired Kim informs the Kim of the present: "You owe me one."

This has got to be the most clever episode in the series to date, and Kim’s out-of-character acting is excellent.

Nit: Before attempting the flight, Kim and Paris run 23 successive unsuccessful test flights, attempting to make course corrections. They conclude that the flight can not take place. Then Kim suggests that he ride point in the Delta Flyer and send course corrections back to Voyager. Janeway asks for a flight plan on her desk and says she’ll decide. She decides to go ahead. This plan is going to end in disaster. So I must ask: how come no simulations of this approach were run on the holodeck to determine if it could work?